The respirator hissed as John walked out into the dark, open air. Black smoke filled the sky, blocking the sun from view, along with any blue in the sky. John looked around, scanning for incoming cargo trains before he crossed the road. Along with the smoke, the steel factories burned the land around them and poured ash onto every available surface. White powder jumped upward with every step, then floated down slowly, leaving a wake behind a person walking. John was halfway across the street when he heard a rumble approaching through the haze of smoke and ash. He quickly rushed out of the way and turned, peering through the air toward the sound. A dark outline of a vehicle appeared, rushing down the street at an incredible speed. John barely managed a glimpse at the tank as it rocketed through his restricted field of view. He soon pieced together an image of the tank as dozens more sped past him, sending ash twenty feet upwards in a massive translucent wall. One large turret was visible, with a few smaller guns spread around the body of the tank. A bright blue light was visible beneath each tank, a light that resulted from the expelled energy used to produce levitation.
Once the last tank had gone by, John turned and walked away puzzled. Since when had The Foundries produced tanks? The territory was only meant to create parts that would be used in the massive satellites that were being constructed in orbit, along with every other territory on Earth. Why would weapons of war even be created? Every territory was united under one flag, there was no reason for rivalry or war. Why in the world were tanks being produced?
The respirator hissed again, filtering the ash and pollutants out of the air so that John could breathe. Sadly, he wasn’t one of the lucky few who had been genetically altered to naturally breathe polluted air, and so he was stuck constantly wearing this device. John continued to walk home, passing a few other citizens on the way. He rushed past these people, just as they did to him, in his rush to be in the comfort of his own home. Many other citizens had already retreated to their housing to get out of the ash and breathe clean air without wearing a respirator.

The tanks continued on their path from The Foundries toward the southern territory in charge of textiles. It took less than a day to reach their destination, the capital. They quickly moved into the center of the sprawling city, and aimed their weapons at the Central Control Facility.
A man’s voice was projected from one of the tanks.
“By command of the head councilmen of The Foundries, this territory is demanded to surrender itself to the The Foundries, and pledge its service only to The Foundries.”
It took a few minutes, but soon members of the Central Control Facility came rushing out the doors to look at the weapons of war at their doorstep.
“What is this?” shouted a tall man with graying hair. His gray and blue uniform signified him as the Head of the textile territory. “You have no right, no reason, to take over this territory. The Presidential Cabinet will not stand for it, and neither will we!”
The other council members nodded in agreement, silently standing much farther behind the Head.
“We have every reason for the commandeering of this territory,” came the voice from the tanks, “We are in need of an area for expansion. Our territory has become crowded, we are restricted within ridiculous boundaries and are prevented from building skyward to provide more housing for our citizens.”
“That is hardly a reason for invasion. You should request the Presidential Cabinet for a reworking of your boundaries,” replied the Head.
“We have tried, and the Presidential Cabinet has refused our request.”
“That is improbable,” responded the Head flatly.
“If you will not believe that, then look upward. What do you see?”
“The sky.”
“And above that?”
The Head stared at the three near completed gray rings that streaked across the horizon.
“I see The Rings, which are nearly finished,” he said, still looking at the sky, his thoughts lingering on the magnificence of the massive satellites.
“Exactly,” came the voice from the tanks, “Nearly finished. The Rings are nearly finished. The last shipments from our territory are being sent up now, along with the final shipments of many other territories.”
The voice paused before continuing, letting the confused people wonder what he was getting at. “This division of territories for the building of The Rings is no longer necessary. When the Presidential Cabinet decides to call off the project, our citizens will be trapped in a wasteland. We need to expand into clearer skies before it is too late. We will not have enough money to purchase necessities of life since we will no longer be able to produce anything to sell.”
“There is still metal left, you will still have a needed purpose! Your reasoning is still flawed!” shouted the Head, shaking his head at the stupidity of this so called invader. He stopped when he heard the next noise to come from the tanks.
Laughter.
The voice resumed after its bitter chuckles had ended, “You believe those myths? Ha! You are looking at the last metal available to the earth! We have exhausted everything!”
Horror crossed the Head’s face as he realized that the voice was serious. He barely shouted out his next words, “We can still mine the asteroids.”
“With what? Cargo space-craft? There’s only one of those left, the others have been scrapped to get more metal for The Rings. And if we got to an asteroid, we’d have no tools to mine it. They were melted down after we exhausted the nearby asteroids.”
“Well then, if what you say is true, meaning that your people would be living in a wasteland, why not just abandon the territory and peacefully share the land?” asked the Head.
There was a quiet from the tanks. The councilmembers stood for a few minutes waiting for a reply.
The voice returned, “Share this!”
The turrets on the tanks swivelled towards each councilmember and opened fire. After mowing down all the members outside, the main turrets were focused on the surrounding buildings, sending shells flying into walls and windows. The square was soon reduced to rubble, and the tanks continued outward on different streets, announcing their claim over the territory. The Foundries grab for world power had begun, and the world would soon descend into fire.

Overpopulation had been the first problem the world faced. Cities expanded to such a large size, that the only open space left were the farms that raised food. Violence became too common, with everyone, individual or nation, fighting to get resources necessary to live. A solution was brought forward. Since lunar colonies were improbable due to high costs of transporting necessary resources so far, orbital colonies were proposed. Hundreds of satellites would be launched into space, and colonists would then be moved up there, reducing the population on Earth’s surface.
At first, the satellite colony idea went well. People lived peacefully in space, food and water was shipped up to them, and their waste was shipped down to Earth to be recycled. Some of the pressure of overpopulation was relieved, but not much.
As more satellites were put into orbit, living in space became more hazardous due to criss-crossing orbits. It was only a matter of time before two satellites collided. And when they did collide, the world went into an uproar. Colonists were pulled back down from space, and the world was dragged into a war between the two countries whose satellites had collided.
The lack of land had created high tensions between every country as they tried to find room to accommodate their massive populations. Fights over control of resources was also common, with nations trying to improve their economies or provide for their citizens. So when a trigger event occurred, every nation was more than ready to take sides and fight to take down whoever they viewed as their oppressor. When the war had become a wearisome trial for nations, a man came and brought a worldwide compromise before every nation. Every nation would come together under one uniting power and work together to create three gigantic rings in the orbital layer that would be used for expansion back into space. The idea of world-wide peace and a safer alternative to hundreds of separate satellites in orbit appealed to the people of every nation, and the political debates over the proposals began.
In the end, both parts of the compromise were agreed to, and the world was divided into separate territories of one entity. Each territory was assigned products to create for the making of The Rings. Everything had gone smoothly for decades, until dozens of tanks pulled into the square of the textile territory’s capital.
In the war that followed, hundreds of millions of refugees were flown to the space stations, which had been finished a year after the war began. The rest of Earth’s population were trapped on the ground, using whatever they could as a weapon against the invading armies. The Foundries’ armies crushed most of the resistance they met, and when they didn’t succeed at first, they returned and slaughtered every citizen of the resistant territory. The war severed the connection between Earth and The Rings, causing the refugees in space to starve and die of dehydration. They were trapped in space, without hope of ever returning to the planet since no landing site was safe enough to use due to the war.
After The Foundries had conquered the world, all that was left were ruins and billions of skeletons. People had to learn how to survive without the comforts they had before, and survival rose to the forefront in everyone’s minds. Education and attempts at rebuilding were forgotten. Soon enough, no one knew how to use the technology of their forefathers. The world began to bloom and return to a state similar to before Industrialization, before the New World was discovered, before the Crusades, before the Roman Empire, all the way back until it would seem that human beings once again lived in a Stone Age, thousands of years after the first.
With the New World came new perils, new challenges, and a new beginning.